Friday, July 24 - What Comes of This Seed?

About 3 years ago, out in the front of our school, a rogue plant appeared in the very neatly newly planted landscape. This plant, continued to grow, unchecked by the maintenance crew.

Much to our surprise, when it got to be about 2 1/2 ft. tall, these wonderful trumpet-like blossoms in white appeared. The plant continued to grow to about 4 ft. and had many blossoms which in turn, turned to spiny seed pods. The seed pods dried out and split, scattering their seed throughout the mulch in that area.


Soon, many little plants could be seen taking root.

People who came and went often commented on the plant and it's beautiful blossoms and wondered what it was called. I did some research and found out it is called Datura. It is a plant that many people grow in their gardens. It is not a weed.

My principal, didn't share the same opinion. After passing it everyday for most of the summer, he let the maintenance staff know that they should yank them all out when they did the final grounds clean-up before school started in September.

The only problem was that by that time, the plant had spread so much and shed so many seeds into the mulch that it would be impossible to totally eradicate it.

We plant seeds of knowledge inside and hope that they get nurtured and grow to be big thoughts someday. It's a process that you hope won't be stopped once it's started. One never knows what those seeds of knowledge can become someday. We should be so lucky that from those seeds come beautiful flowers.

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fortune of the Republic, 1878

Can we not say that about a child?